Saudi Arabia pumped crude at the highest level in more than three decades in June, overtaking Russia as the world’s largest oil producer during the month, according to the Joint Organization Data Initiative.

The kingdom’s output rose 3 per cent to 10.1 million barrels a day in June from May as it exported the most in a month since November 2005, according to statistics the government submitted to Opec and posted on JODI’s website on Sunday.

Russia pumped 9.9 million barrels a day of crude oil in the same month, according to the initiative known as JODI. The Russian data exclude natural-gas liquids, JODI said.

Saudi Arabia, the largest producer in the 12-member Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, put 272 million barrels of crude oil in storage inside the country in June, 2.2 per cent less than in May, the data show. The world’s biggest oil exporter shipped 7.84 million barrels a day in June, an increase of 2.3 per cent from a month earlier. The data for output and exports include condensates and exclude natural-gas liquids.

JODI calculated a different barrel-per-day figure for Russia using data in metric tons that the country submitted to the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, and compared that with information from other sources, it said.

JODI is supervised by the Riyadh-based International Energy Forum and compiles data provided by member governments. The IEF, a group of nations accounting for more than 90 per cent of global oil and natural-gas supply and demand, was established as a forum for producing and consuming countries to discuss energy security. The US, China and the European Union are among the IEF’s members, according to its website.

Brent October crude futures fell more than 1 per cent on Friday on talk of a possible release of US strategic petroleum reserves and expectations that North Sea output will rebound after maintenance curbs production in September.

Profit taking by those trading the Brent/US crude spread also was a factor, a day after the Brent September contract expired at a three-month peak and Brent’s premium to its US counterpart having exceeded $ 22 a barrel this week.

Front-month US September crude showed resilience, edging up in choppy trade to its own three-month high, while US gasoline and heating oil futures fell sharply in tandem with Brent’s decline.

Following the Brent September contract’s expiration on Thursday at a three-month peak of $ 116.90 a barrel, October Brent pared gains in post-settlement trading on news the White House was “dusting off old plans” for a potential release of strategic oil stocks.